Max Verstappen Smells Blood In Title Fight After Baku Grand Slam

• Max Verstappen’s win in Baku cuts Oscar Piastri’s lead to 69 points with seven races left.
• The Dutchman claimed his sixth career Grand Slam, equalling Lewis Hamilton for second-most in F1 history.
• McLaren boss Andrea Stella says Red Bull’s upgrades make Verstappen a genuine title contender.

Max Verstappen has not ruled out a late push for the Formula 1 world championship after cutting the gap to leader Oscar Piastri with a dominant display at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Two weeks after his win at Monza, Verstappen took full advantage of Piastri’s rare mistakes. The Australian crashed in qualifying and again on the opening lap of Sunday’s race, leaving the Dutchman to claim victory and close to within 69 points in the standings.

Lando Norris could not make up ground for McLaren, finishing seventh to see his own advantage over Verstappen reduced to 44 points.

Verstappen’s flawless weekend included pole position, fastest lap, victory and every lap led, marking his sixth career Grand Slam and moving level with Lewis Hamilton for the second-most in F1 history.

“This weekend has been incredible for us,” Verstappen told reporters. “Of course, last weekend was already great. But yeah, for us to win here again is just fantastic.

“That’s another just great result. A bit unusual. This season has been really swinging left and right, but at least now two weekends in a row, it’s been going really well.”

Asked if he sees a chance to re-enter the drivers’ championship fight, Verstappen was realistic but cautious. “I mean, I don’t rely on hope. Seven races to go and it’s still 69 points? It’s a lot.

“But basically everything needs to go perfect from my side. And then a bit of luck from there from their [McLaren] side I need as well, you know, so it’s still very tough.

“So I personally don’t think about it. I just go race by race, what I have been doing basically the whole season — just trying to do the best we can, try to score the most points that we can. And then after Abu Dhabi, we’ll know.”

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella acknowledged Red Bull’s progress. “Red Bull look improved,” he told SiriusXM after the race.

“I think they have made a genuine improvement. They had upgrades in Monza. They seem to have found a way to exploit these upgrades with the setup.

“I said that yesterday already that Max and Red Bull will be regular contenders for the wins, and definitely Max is a contender for the drivers’ championship. So there’s a lot of work ahead of us. We need to stay focused, improve, and we will go again.”